TC Maxi, Lee REAL, Lyman GP

What are your thoughts on these out of a 1/48 twist, 50 caliber?
I'll chime in later my little experience with the REAL and extensive use of the old style TC Maxi.
Thanks

My Experience is with 1-28 twist. SO I fall out of your limited twist range.

I will say that the Lyman GP is the worst bullet I have ever shot. The REAL 320 was accurate enough to probably get the job done out to 100. The only TC bullets I bought were these. I didn't shoot any after seeing this. I figured that if that was as close as they kept their Quality Control there was no reason for me to shoot them.

IdahoRon,
If you have a tutorial on how you pp your.440 boolits I will scramble to read it first. I have an Accurate Molds 460-405grain wfngc mold for my 4570 that might just solve my dilemma for the TC 1\48" barrels I have.

Here's the story:
Near 30 years ago I received a TC maxihunter mold for Christmas as I had just previously purchased a TC Renegade in 50 caliber. I loved that steel mold, casting thousands of conical boolits from it over the years, shooting many and trading many, too. These were the only projectiles ever fired out of the Renegade. They grouped wonderfully with 65 grains of fffg. One 8 pointer was dropped at 175 yards a frosty morning many years back. I have always been pleased with this boolit.

The former wife's TC White Mountain carbine, on the other hand, would not group them worth a darn. Lee REAL boolits worked quite well in that barrel with a faster twist. Long story short, when the faithless one and I parted ways those two Molds were left behind, much to my chagrin.

Now I find myself nearly devoid of proper Conicals to shoot. The carbine is long gone and I never tested the REAL boolits in the Renegade or the inherited Hawkins so I am not sure if they are a good alternative to the maxihunter or not. Are TC Molds even available still? I'm trying to decide where to go from here. Try the REAL, look for a used TC, consider Lyman, etc... Paper patching the 4570 slugs even sounds appealing.
Suggestions anyone?

In my TC Hawken rifles the Hornady great plains bullet shot the best. Use a felt wad under the bullet and use heavy loads. I use 90 grains of Triple seven 2F in my 50 cal.

Christophero said:

IdahoRon,
If you have a tutorial on how you pp your.440 boolits I will scramble to read it first. I have an Accurate Molds 460-405grain wfngc mold for my 4570 that might just solve my dilemma for the TC 1\48" barrels I have.

Here's the story:
Near 30 years ago I received a TC maxihunter mold for Christmas as I had just previously purchased a TC Renegade in 50 caliber. I loved that steel mold, casting thousands of conical boolits from it over the years, shooting many and trading many, too. These were the only projectiles ever fired out of the Renegade. They grouped wonderfully with 65 grains of fffg. One 8 pointer was dropped at 175 yards a frosty morning many years back. I have always been pleased with this boolit.

The former wife's TC White Mountain carbine, on the other hand, would not group them worth a darn. Lee REAL boolits worked quite well in that barrel with a faster twist. Long story short, when the faithless one and I parted ways those two Molds were left behind, much to my chagrin.

Now I find myself nearly devoid of proper Conicals to shoot. The carbine is long gone and I never tested the REAL boolits in the Renegade or the inherited Hawkins so I am not sure if they are a good alternative to the maxihunter or not. Are TC Molds even available still? I'm trying to decide where to go from here. Try the REAL, look for a used TC, consider Lyman, etc... Paper patching the 4570 slugs even sounds appealing.
Suggestions anyone?

Click to expand...

Paper patching for me has been on fast twist barrels. My 50's are 1-28 twist and the 45's are 1-18, and 1-30.
I haven't paper patched for the 1-48 twist in the OEM barrels. But if you want to research here is a video. You can find the written tutorial on that video.

https://youtu.be/RmARVEFJbr0

Heres 40 yard groups out of a lowly CVA bobcat..The maxi hunter 5 shot group is a bit under 1.5"..The maxi balls are well under an inch and believe it or not Ive shot maxi balls into smaller groups than that with this bobcat.Both were 80gr of FFG Goex with a overpowder wad..The same gun loves buffalo ball ets and hornady great plains bullets..My renegade shoots maxi balls great too and also shoots the lyman plains bullet pretty good.. It hates LEE REAL bullets for some reason..All bullets cast from pure lead..Just about every ML Ive owned with an appropriate twist has loved maxi balls..In several of my guns they were more accurate than any PRB combo I tried..I still mostly hunt with a PRB but still I can ignore how well these conicals shoot.

No experience with great plains or REAL. But my T/C 50 1:48 LOVES the maxi balls and 90 grains. At 50 yds round balls shoot 3 inch groups. Maxi are always touching unless I jerk the trigger... something I never do...ha

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Yikes! Those look like the maxi-hunters, which shoot terrible in my gun.

I've had real good luck with the T/C maxi ball..
Usually all the shots touch. Haven't tried the R.E.A.L. bullets.

Not much difference between what any of those will do vs a PRB. I've been casting the .54 cal Lee Improved Minie for around 40 years for a particular rifle & have since used it on occasion in 2 different Investarms .54 cal 1:48" rifles & it performs with about the same accuracy out to 50 yards. Beyond that it drops about 4" more than a PRB at 100 yards.

AZbpBurner said:

Not much difference between what any of those will do vs a PRB. I've been casting the .54 cal Lee Improved Minie for around 40 years for a particular rifle & have since used it on occasion in 2 different Investarms .54 cal 1:48" rifles & it performs with about the same accuracy out to 50 yards. Beyond that it drops about 4" more than a PRB at 100 yards.

Click to expand...

The topic is actually about conicals not PRB. ff

Idaho Ron said:

The topic is actually about conicals not PRB. ff

Click to expand...

Yep! Even I respectfully refrained from mentioning them... :grin:

colorado clyde said:

Idaho Ron said:

The topic is actually about conicals not PRB. ff

Click to expand...

Yep! Even I respectfully refrained from mentioning them... :grin:

Click to expand...

That surprised me :applause:

I know right? It was close though...I thought about it... :haha:

:surrender: You guys are killing me, ha ha! Thanks for the replies. They've been great.
It also sparked memory that the first deer I ever shot was with Dad's 45 caliber TC Hawkin and a Maxiball. Handful of hair, few drops of blood but no deer found caused me to purchase the .50 Renegade in time for the next season. A Maxiball made short work of a nice doe. I was concerned at the time about the half inch hole in and the half inch hole out that I soon gravitated towards the Maxihunter mold to obtain greater expansion. Probably not necessary but nearly 3 decades ago I bought the hype.
The Maxihunter served me very well but scraping the bottom of the barrel is promoting an evaluation of what to use now. A quick search didn't reveal an abundance of them to be had.
Sounds like the REAL boolits are not optimum. They worked in the White Mountain carbine but not impressively.
GPBoolits might be something a try. I'll need to purchase some to test for compatibility with my rifles.
Maxiball Molds seem to be fairly common. If I desire more expansion I can always drill a hollow point I reckon. The target photo above is quite impressive.

Clyde, this may please you: before leaving for work this afternoon I fired two prb out of the Hawkin for the first time, just because. At 25 yards off hand these two shots would have easily killed deer. Finding out what groups at 50 and 100 with prb is definitely an option.

Again, I appreciate all the input and pictures you have submitted. Certainly good information to process.

I've killed a lot of deer over the years, and I learned that; The better your hunting skills are the less important your choice of weapon is.... :grin:

T/C maxi balls shoot very good for me. The Maxi-hunters are not worth trying. I have not found a good load for them in anything yet. The best R.e.a.l load for me is a 300 grain in .54 Cal. That is a good conical in my 1-48 twist rifles.

Larry

Over the years, I have tried all sorts of conicals in my rifles. I keep coming back to my .50 T/C Maxiball mold to make my conicals. Actually, I seldom use conicals because I see no need for them. A patched round ball is my preference. (Scuse me Ron, I didn't mean to mention PRBs, it just sort of slipped out). :haha:

Just don't come down on me if I start talking about conicals in a PRB thread. :thumbsup:

Hey Ron just because I got a good deal on a T/C WMC with scope ,mint condition bore, pretty wood,nice rifle ,i thought i would try something i took three Lee Real Bullets 320 grns ran them through a .492 sizer i made, then paper patched with news print 70grns FFg and fiber wad shot a 1 1/2" = 3 shot group at 50yds ,not got to shoot it anymore yet,i think it may have promise.